Court Rejects Retired Civil Servant's Claim for Pension Increase

A legal battle is underway in Turkey concerning the "seyyanen zam," a flat-rate increase of 8,077 Turkish Lira granted to public employees in the latter half of 2023. Adnan Okur, a retired civil servant and member of the Peoples' Liberation Party (Halkın Kurtuluş Partisi), initiated a lawsuit at the Council of State (Danıştay), challenging the regulation that excluded pensioners from receiving this benefit. Okur's legal team argued that the exclusion violated the Turkish Constitution. The case has navigated through various judicial levels, with the Council of State's 12th Chamber initially referring the case to the Ankara Administrative Court due to jurisdictional reasons. Subsequently, the Ankara 9th Administrative Court dismissed the lawsuit, stating that the additional payment was intended solely for active public officials and that no provision existed for its reflection in retirement pensions. Undeterred, Okur's lawyer appealed this decision. The Ankara Regional Administrative Court's 11th Administrative Law Chamber upheld the lower court's ruling, finding it compliant with procedural and legal provisions. However, a significant dissenting opinion was filed by a Chamber President, who argued that the regulation potentially contravened the constitutional principle of equality and the prohibition of discrimination under the European Convention on Human Rights. This dissenting view suggests that the case should have been escalated to the Constitutional Court for a review of the norm's constitutionality, particularly concerning the alleged legislative omission rather than an active legislative act. The majority decision to reject the appeal, while removing a specific paragraph from the lower court's reasoning, leaves the core issue of fairness for pensioners unresolved at this level, highlighting a deep division in the judicial interpretation of social rights and economic justice for retirees in Turkey.

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The decision given by the Ankara 9th Administrative Court is in accordance with procedural and legal provisions and is lawful.